Today we are showing off two renders of a couple of German last-ditch weapons designed when the Red Army was knocking on the door of Berlin.

The Volkssturm (People's Storm) had been formed in October 1944 from half a million men too old or young to have been conscripted into the regular Heer. However, there were not enough regular weapons left to arm even the Army, let alone the Volkssturm. A series of cheap and primitive rifles were designed to arm the militia, and the most advanced of these was the Volkssturmgewehr made by Gustloff.

It used the same kurz ammunition and 30 round magazines as the StG 44, and was made from as few parts as possible. There were only 39 metal parts and 21 of these could be stamped. It operated by gas-delayed blowback, and similarly to many pistols the whole slide assembly surrounding the barrel recoils with each shot. Between January and May 1945, approximately 10000 were made and issued.

Perhaps the simplest of the primitive weapons was the Steyr VG5, also known as the Volkssturmkarabiner K98. It was assembled from a mixture of rejected receivers and shot out rifle barrels. Like all the Volkssturmgewehrs, it had fixed sights set for 100m. Unlike the other rifles, this one had no magazine and had to be reloaded after each shot. Both our Volkssturm rifles were made by Seth Soldier.

That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our IRC channel, our public forums, and/or our Twitter and Facebook pages to discuss this update and other news.